This is a short history of my father's side of the family. I make no pretenses here of presenting a comprehensive family history- only the facts and trivia that I know of.

To begin with, I'm using the papers that were gathered together by my grandmother, Louise Bourman Fossum as source documents. I'm not sure how accurate some of the papers are. I have spotted a few errors and a few spelling discrepancies on a few of them.

I'm attempting here to start with Reier and Ragna Fossum's parents and work my way down. I've also included a little of the background of Louise Bourman Fossum, Alf Fossum's wife. (Reier was my great-grandfather and Alf and Louise my grandparents.)

Rex was married to Ida Hangaard. He lived in the state of Washington. Rex and Ida's children were George, Earl and Ruby. (One of the descendents of Rex established the "Fossum Apple Orchard" in Washington I believe.)

had six children: Roy, Marie, Ole, Louise, Ramona and Marie. The picture above was taken at Ragna's 90th birthday celebration.

Ragna's first marrage produced two children: Roy lived in Seattle, never married, had no children and was killed in 1954. Her daughter Marie married Mit Elmsley. They had two children- Gary Elmsley who died from cancer in 1983 and Karen Elmsley (now Sweigart) of Redding California.

Ragna's second marrage was to Ole Christensen and produced three children. Ole and Ragna lived in Spokanne,WA. (Ole passed away in 1937 from a cerebral hemmorage.) Their three children included Ole Christensen (1919), Ramona (Mona) (1926), and Louise Christensen (1924)

Louise Married Ted Berg.(Louise passed away in 1993 and Ted in 1994.) They had three boys. Greg, Kevin and Kelly. Kevin and Kelly were twins. Greg Berg now lives in Idaho( 1948). Kevin lives in Washington (1951) and Kelly (1951)passed away in 1999.)

Mona married Ed Rochester. They had 4 children. Mona currently lives in Arizona. (Ed passed away 7-20-01). They had four children: Roger Rochester of Oregon, Doug Rochester of Washington, Kenny Rochester of Nevada, and Kathy Rochester of California.

Ole Christensen married Elaine (1944)(Both passed on in 1992)
The had two children: Ole Chistensen (IV) of California and Jana Christensen (Violet) of California. Ole the IV currently runs an auto repair shop in Palo Alto, California. This is the only picture I have of Ole at the moment:

Reier Fossum was married to Ragna Andreasen. Their children were Alf, Ole, Magne, Oscar, Ralph, Millie, Gladys, Ole, Bjarne, Arnold, and George.

Annie Aslaug had three marriages and had 10-12 children but no list of them can be found. The picture above is of Aslaug, Ragna and Ragna's son Ole Christensen.

Reier Fossum was born in 1877. His parents were Reier Christonsen and Olia Olsen. Reier was born in Starelvedalen, Norway. He went through the ordinary school in Norway and was in the Army three years. He married Ragna Andreasen on December 28th, 1899. She was from the same place in Norway.

Ragna was born on December 25th, 1880. She was the daughter of Ole Messelt Andreasen.

Reier immigrated to the USA in April, 1904. Ragna came later with their three children. He took a free homestead in Hangaard township, Clearwater County, Minnesota. The same year he "proved up" his homestead and got citizenship in June, 1910. Later he sold his homestead and bought a farm in Equality township Red Lake County, in March, 1913. This is the land presently owned by the Elmer Brovald family and where Gary Fossum has a hunting cabin. This is the site where their children grew up. In the spring of 1944, Reier bought 144 acres of land just south and east in the same section of Equality township, from Gust Peterson for $500. Gust homesteaded this land in 1905. In the spring of 1950, George Fossum, the youngest son of Reier and Ragna, bought the land and Reier and Ragna lived with George and his wife Hazel and their family until his retirement. At that time, they moved to Proctor and lived there until their deaths. The farm is presently owned by George's son Larry and his wife Karen.

Reier died on Nov. 11, 1956 at the age of 79 and Ragna died in July 16, 1958 at the age of 77. Both are buried in the Clearwater Lutheran Cemetary northeast of Oklee, MN. The services were both held at Clearwater Lutheran Church in Oklee with the Rev. Wilhelm Peterson officiating.

Reier also did carpenter work besides farming. They were both members of the Clearwater Lutheran Church. Reier helped with the construction of the church and later (1937-1938) built the basement for it. He made the first pews, the baptismal font and some tables. He was also on the church board for several years. Ragna was a member of the Ladies Aid. Reier and Ragna had eleven children, three of whom died at an early age. In the 1930s, Reier worked at Kodiak Island, Alaska, at the Naval base there.

The children of Reier and Ragna Fossum are as follows:

(born in Norway)
Alf-- born May 17th, 1900 (died June 6th, 1970 at age 70)
Ole-- born Sept. 11th, 1902 (died 14 years old from tuberculosis)
Magne-- born Oct. 16th, 1903 (died 11 years old from pneumonia)

(born in America)
Oscar-- born Sept. 13th, 1906 (died 8 months old from pneumonia)
Ralph-- born April 25th, 1909 (died May 13th, 1987 at age 78)
Millie-- born Oct. 23rd, 1913
Gladys-- born July 12th, 1915 (died Oct. 13th, 1977 at age 62)
Ole-- born November 19th, 1917 (died Dec. 19th, 1973 at age 57)
Bjarne-- born January 11th, 1918 (died June 14th, 1988)
Arnold-- born Feb. 13th, 1920 (died May 21st, 1986 at age 66)
George-- born May 20th, 1923 (died Feb. 15th, 1977 at age 53 and nine months)

Alf Rangvald Fossum was born May 17th, 1900 in Osterdalen, Norway. Alf was five years old when he emigrated to America with his mother, Ragna and his two brothers. He died on June 12th, 1970 and is buried in Duluth's Sunrise Cemetary.

He lived in the Gonvich area, Hangaard township, Clearwater County, MN until 1912 when he moved with his parents to Equality township. In 1922, Alf moved to the Duluth area. It was after this that he married Louise Bourman, daughter of Carl Bourman, on April 24th, 1923 in Duluth, Minnesota. She was born August 15th, 1900 in McIntosh, Lessor Township, Minnesota.

Alf was employed by the Duluth Mesabi and Iron Range railroad known as the DM&IR Railroad. He worked at the Ore Docks, as a hoister and boat loader. After that he was a carpenter. He did remodeling for others, as well as building the house he and Louise lived in for 23 years. After that, they moved to an apartment in downtown Duluth. That was just six months before his death.

Alf loved to work in his garden. He always had a beautiful lawn and flowers. His garden was also filled with raspberries and strawberries.

Alf died on June 12th, 1970. He had asthma, emphysema and lung cancer from working on the dusty railroads for so long. Before he died, he took up a strong interest in spiritual matters and began reading his Bible and watching Billy Graham on t.v.

Roger Fossum remembers him as a big, strong man who loved reading National Geographic magazine and watched Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom faithfully. Arnold Fossum described Alf once as being a stubborn, strong-willed sort of guy.

Alf's obituary from the Duluth News-Tribune read:

Alf R. Fossum, 70, of 1728 E. 3rd St., formerly of Pike Lake, died Friday in a Duluth hospital. Born in Osterdalen, Norway, he had been a Duluth resident for 65 years. He retired in 1965 after 45 years with the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway. He was a member of Grace Lutheran Church and the West Duluth Moose Lodge.

Louise died in her sleep on November 28th, 1979. She had a blood vein near her heart just "wear out" and she basically bled to death while sleeping. The last memory Roger Fossum has of Louise was sitting on a piano bench when Grandma Louise walked over. She sat down next to him, put her arm around him, her bony head on his shoulder and she said she loved him. She passed away four days later.

Louise always had sugar cookies ready for visitors and liked to play canasta with visitors.

Arlene attended Business College and has worked as a computer operator at U.S. Steel, Minnesota Mining, and also at a Piggly Wiggly food chain. She now is a housewife.

Harley was in the Air Corps (motor pool) for three and a half years during World War II. He also attended Business College and worked as the County Recorder for the county that San Diego is in. Harley was apolitical- he and Arlene went through one of the biggest experiences of their lives in 1970. The County Recorder's office was made an elected position forcing Harley to campaign for his job. During the county election, Harley ran for office against four other men and won in the primary, surprising everyone.

They both like gardening, especially flowers, photography and reading.

Their two children are:

Alice Arlene Bloom(b. 8-15-1948) She has her degree in Sociology and Psychology and worked in a probation department. While there, she crossed paths with Patty Hearst in the mid-seventies.

Allan Harley Bloom(b. 1-6-1950) Married Phyllis White (b. 8-15-1948) on December 16th, 1972. Allan has a degree in accounting and has worked as a motel manager.

Violet graduated from high school in 1945. She worked two years as a nursemaid for a local doctor's child. Then she entered the Bethesda Hospital School of Nursing in 1947 and graduated in 1950. After that she was a RN for St. Paul, MN (the city and the county) and became the Director of Nursing Services at the Ramsey Nursing Home. She retired after a 35-year career in nursing.

Both Violet and her husband like the outdoors. They fish and camp together. Oliver is an avid hunter and has bagged deer, antelope, elk and bear. Also they like to travel and have been to the eastern and southern states of the U.S., as well as Europe.

Their only child is Linda Kaye Anderson Kagan. Born on 1-17-1959, Linda is a registered occupational therapist for a private company. She is married to Larry Kagan and currently living in Portland, Oregon.

Earl was born on July 3rd, 1930 in Duluth, MN and passed away February 18th, 2002. He married Beatrice Maybelle Carey (b. 6-22-1927) on March 4th, 1961. There's a "Certificate of Baptism" from a "J.B. Shefveland, LUTHERAN Pastor" testifying to an infant baptism on July 3rd, 1930, the day he was born.

As a young boy Earl worked for a small grocery store on his bicycle delivering grocery orders to the homes of customers of the store. Later he worked at the Pike Lake Rollar Skating Rink as the guy who skates on the rink to help anyone who might fall down while rollar skating. He went by the nickname of "Buster" while in high school.

After graduating from Hermantown High School in 1948, he spent approximately two months in the U.S. Army, where he completed boot camp and started "A" School for cooking. He was released from the Army for health reasons- they felt he was too nervous to stay in the service.

He worked briefly as a "repo" man for a local Duluth bank before finding his niche as a grocer with the Thorp grocery stores in Duluth, MN.

The first Thorp grocery store he worked at was located at the intersection of North 22nd Avenue West and Piedmont Avenue in Duluth's West End neighborhood. (It was later converted into a Laundromat before eventually being torn down.) He briefly worked at the then Thorp-owned Fourth Street Market before going out to the newly opened Denfeld Super Valu. It was there he met Beatrice who worked in the bakery and later became his wife.

In the early sixties, the Thorps opened a new store located on Woodland Avenue in eastern Duluth called Mount Royal Super Valu. Earl, then called by the nickname "Barney", transferred to the new store as the grocery department manager. He stayed at Mount Royal until his eventual retirement in the summer of 1992.

He was a member of the former Calvary Temple church and later Esko's New Hope Bible Chapel.

He was an avid reader of the newspaper. He liked watching wrestling and Duluth City Council meetings on cable t.v. He liked sandwiches made of margarine, peanut butter and bananas.

Late in life, he suffered from a long list of ailments. In the mid-eighties, he had a big heart attack, which required a double bypass. He had angina. He had Meneire's disease. He was nearly blind in one eye. He had diabetes. He broke his arm twice, a rib once, his right thighbone and his right hip all on different occasions. He had many, many bouts of pneumonia. He was hard-of-hearing late in life. He had congestive heart failure, which made it hard for him to breathe. He suffered from water retention. He had his gall bladder removed. He had a defibrillator- a reverse pacemaker to regulate his heartbeat.

Beatrice Maybelle Carey, Earl's wife, was born on June 22nd, 1927 to Clifford and Susanna Carey. She lived on the Normanna Road near Island Lake in a log cabin. Clifford was a lumberjack who suffered from back problems stemming from his involvement in World War I. They were poor.

After leaving school in Junior High, Beatrice went to work at the Sixth Avenue East National Tea grocery store bakery where she learned the skills of a baker. She was there for four and a half years. She worked for Western Electric for two years. Later she continued to learn more about the bakery business -especially cake decorating- while working at the Denfeld Super Valu bakery. And finally the last place she worked was at the Mount Royal Super Valu deli where she made sandwich loaves and took care of the cheeses.

He was born September 16th, 1937 and died February 22nd, 1980 in a winter auto accident.

Dale married Shawnee (Sharon) J. Baker on April 27th, 1957. Shawnee remarried after Dale's death to Wayne Gayhart.

Dale lived in Duluth from the years of 1937 through 1957. He then went on to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1957 where he attended Marquette University, pre-med school. In 1964, he moved on. Dale enlisted in the U.S. Army and headed to San Antonio, Texas. There, he did his internship and took up Residency for Internal Medicine. In the years of 1968 through 1969 he went to Fort Rucker, Alabama and then off again to Shape, Belgium until 1973. He served at NATO headquarters in Belgium.

During the time he was in Belgium, he saw both military personnel as well as non-military personnel. One of the American tourists he saw was a woman who kept staring at him. Finally she said "You won't believe this, but you look exactly like my grocer, back home in Duluth, Minnesota." It turned out she was a customer of Dale's older brother Earl.

After leaving the service he went to Oshkosh, Wisconsin in July of 1973. This is where he went into private practice for internal medicine.

Dr. Dale (Sharon) Fossum, 43, Oshkosh, and a native Duluthian, was killed Friday in an automobile accident in Ironwood, Michigan. He was born in Hermantown High School and received his doctor of medicine from Marquette University, Milwaukee. In addition to his wife, he is survived by two daughters, Lori and Julie, and a son, Scott, all at home, and three sisters and two brothers.

Ralph and Irene lived in Proctor, Minnesota. In the 1970s, Ralph operated an auto repair garage with his sons. Irene worked as a first-grade teacher at Proctor's St. Rose's Parochial School for many years.

They were devout Catholics. Roger Fossum remembers attending a special service with them at the Duluth Auditorium where Father Gerald LaPatka and Father Ralph DiOrio were having a joint healing service.

Ralph had his picture taken by the Duluth News-Tribune standing in his front yard next to an official Minnesota state "NORWEGIAN CROSSING" sign.

They had several children, Rosella, Vernon Ronald, Donald Ralph, Robert James, Dean Marlin, and Steven Allen.

Ralph was born on April 25th, 1909 in Hangaard Township, Minnesota. He died on May 13th, 1987 in Proctor, Minnesota. His funeral was at St. Rose's Catholic Church in Proctor and was officiated by Father James Crossman. He's buried at Duluth's Oneota Cemetary.

Ralph's wife Irene died in August 1997. Roger Fossum remembers even in the late nineties while doing substitute teaching and student teaching in Proctor, there were teachers there who know Irene and thought very highly of her.

Rosella was born December 11th, 1940. She married George Towner on May 13th, 1960. George died July 2nd, 1987. Their children include Laura (b. Dec. 21st, 1962), Wendy (b. Dec. 16th, 1964) and Douglas (b. August 17th, 1966). Wendy married Kenny Hall in August, 1985.

Vernon Ronald was born on January 2nd, 1942. He married Linda Noble (b. 10-13-1949) on November 16th, 1968. Their first daughter was Connie Irene (b. 12-5-1969) who married Ronald Lamprecht on June 21st, 1989. Their second daughter was Julie Louise who was born on November 9th, 1970. Their last child, Jamie Ronald, was born July 28th, 1973.

Donald Ralph was born February 10th, 1943. He married Betty Grabish on April 15th, 1967. Their first daughter was Kelly Patrice who was born on March 26th, 1968. She married Robert Michael Nelson on October 28th, 1989. Their second daughter, Kristi LeAnn, was born on December 29th, 1971. Their son Brandon was born on June 29th, 1981.

Robert James was born on August 1st, 1944. He married Sandra Baker on June 28th, 1969. Their children were Tamara (b. 7-15-1970) and Chad Allen (b. 8-10-1972).

Dean Marlin was born on September 29th, 1945. He married Roberta Jobin on June 22nd, 1969 and was later divorced. Dean died in a home accident on August 19th, 1982.

Their children were Cindy (b. 4-8-1969), Kimberly (b. 3-27-1974) and Melissa (b. 11-1-1976). Cindy married John Seguin on August 18th, 1990. Cindy's children are Nicole (b. 6-17-1985) and Nicholas (b. 5-28-1989).

Steven Allen was born February 16th, 1952. He married Diana Garro on September 25th, 1976 and was divorced on November 27ht, 1980. He subsequently married Kathleen Aldridge on February 7th, 1990.

Steve's one child is Taralyn (Teri) who was born on March 12th, 1978.

Roger Fossum remembers backing up his little white Geo Prizm on the Larson Road, way out in the country on a side road in Esko and having his rear right tire go into the ditch. Steve came to his rescue with chains and his truck to pull Roger out of the ditch. Roger was with Jayden and Ashley Larson on that cold January evening.

Millie Fossum was born on October 23rd, 1913. She married Elmer Brovald on June 14th, 1940. Elmer was born on August 7th, 1911. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary the summer of 1990 in Gully, MN. Elmer and Millie's children were Bruce (b. 5-15-1942) and Brenda (8-31-1944).

Bruce married Sonja Thorson (b. 6-23-1944) on October 5th, 1963. Sonja died on March 20th, 1988. Their children were Stacy (b. 7-20-1964) and Scott (b. 11-14-1967).

Bruce, Sonja, and Stacy are evangelical Christians.

Elmer and Millie's grandaughter Stacy married Gary Nordlund in Dec. 1983. They have two children, Nathan Bruce and Nolan. Stacy and Gary go on occasional short-term missionary trips from time to time.

Brenda married David Odegaard and lives in the suburbs of Minneapolis-St. Paul. They have one daughter, Tamie, born July 17th, 1968.

Earl and Bea Fossum and their family went to visit Elmer and Millie once in the mid-seventies at their country home where there were greeted warmly. Roger Fossum still has a few pictures from that trip.

Gladys Fossum was born on July 12th, 1915. She married Ole Alvin (Lillo) Fore on March 17th, 1934. Alvin was born on June 18th, 1909. Gladys died on October 13th, 1977. She is buried at the Clearwater Lutheran Cemetary northeast of Oklee.

Joyce Lucille, Gladys' daughter, was born on September 12, 1934. She married Charles Ruby Acker on September 1, 1954. Charles died on June 7, 1977. Joyce then married Eldon Luvern "Lars" Larson on June 9, 1979.

Joyce's children are:

Susan Acker (b. 7-14-1955), who married Curtis Carpenter and was later divorced. Susan then married Robert Max Wade on February 2, 1982. Susan's children (Gladys' grandchildren) are

Shawn Carpenter (b. May 23, 1972). Shawn married David Orem on April 1990.

Ole Reinhart Fossum was born on November 19, 1916. Ole married Louise Brandon on September 3rd, 1939. Louise Brandon was born on November 24th, 1908. Ole died in December, 1973. Louise passed away in late November, 2002.

Roger Fossum remembers visiting Ole not long before he passed away. To entertain Roger and his siblings, he stuck an electric "fork" in the ground and caused a whole lot of worms to "percolate" up to the surface. He brought out a coffee can and invited the kids to collect the worms for his upcoming fishing trip. Roger's little brother, Jeff Fossum, was thrilled to find so many worms all in one place.

Bea Fossum's brother, Wallace Carey, remembers meeting Ole at the Duluth Arena in 1972. Ole was a volunteer at the Billy Graham-sponsored Leighton Ford crusade. Wally was so surprised to see Ole there but was also terribly impressed with the change in Ole.

Ole and Louise had four children.

Faye (b. September 2nd, 1940) married Willard Johnson (b. September 4th, 1942) on July 24th, 1965. Faye and Willard's children include Brian (b. April 22nd, 1967), Keith (b. May 27th, 1969), and Kent (b. June 12th, 1976).

Patty (b. March 28th, 1942) married David Latvola (b. August 19th, 1941) on August 20th, 1966. Their daughter is Nancy (b. November 24th, 1974.

Orlis (b. July 21st, 1943) works as an elementary schoolteacher in Europe.

Connie (b. December 5th, 1947) married Ole Jallo (b. April 9th, 1948) on July 20th, 1968. Their children are Noelle (b. August 30th, 1971), Aaron (b. December 8, 1974) and Tami (b. September 17th, 1978).

Arnold was born on February 13, 1920 in Oklee, Minnesota. He married Alice Brandon (b. August 3rd, 1918), a sister to Louise Brandon (Mrs. Ole Fossum). They were wed on September 15th, 1945 at Gonvich.

Arnold died on May 21, 1986 in Rochester, Minnesota. He was a member of Proctor's Bethlehem Lutheran Church and attended while Rev. Clifford Dirksen was pastor there. He's buried at Oneota Cemetary.

Arnold and his brother Ole started a business together they called "Fossum Brothers Construction". After Ole's death, Arnold changed the name of the business to "Arnold Fossum Construction".

Roger Fossum remembers visiting with Arnold and listening to his Scandinavian accent warmly.

Arnold and Alice had two children, Mary Alice and Lyle Arnold.

Mary Alice (b. December 13th, 1954) married Jeff Gookis on July 2nd, 1977. They have three children, Joshua (b. April 13th, 1979), Matthew (b. January 21st, 1981), and Katelyn (b. September 10th, 1985).

Lyle Arnold (b. August 26th, 1959) married Julie Anderson in September of some year. They have two children, Shaina (b. May 20th, 1986) and Stacie (b. December 18th, 1987).

George Mydle Fossum was born on May 20th, 1923. George married Hazel Wedger on April 19th, 1944. Hazel was born on August 13th, 1925. (Hazel was the cousin of Delores Hermerding, a friend of Earl and Beatrice Fossum.) George and Hazel were divorced in 1972. Hazel remarried to Raymond Olson on December 1st, 1977.

George died on February 15th, 1977 and is buried in Clearwater Lutheran Cemetary, northeast of Oklee.

George and Hazel had five children, Gene, LaVonne, Gary Neil, Larry Dean, and Donna.

Gene was born on November 19th, 1944. He died on December 25th, 1944.

LaVonne was born November 2nd, 1945. He married Lowell Emerson (b. December 25th, 1944) on February 27th, 1965. LaVonne and Lowell's children are Kevin (b. June 27th, 1966) and Joelle (b. October 14th, 1968) who married Rex Grill on August 4th, 1990.

Gary Neil (b. July 20th, 1948) married Diane Kostnzewski (b. May 28th, 1948) on June 5th, 1971. They had three children, Christopher (b. August 11th, 1976), Kelly (b. October 21st, 1979) and Jackie (b. May 28th, 1987).

Donna (b. February 8th, 1954) married Jeff Sundrud on December 9th, 1972. They were divorced in 1980. They had two children, Jonathan (b. April 14th, 1975) and Lesley (b. July 23rd, 1977). Donna remarried Robert Sherman on May 15th, 1981.

Wilma's husband, Bennet Tobias Rindahl (or Rendal) was born on June 30th, 1891 in Aneta, Nelson County, North Dakota. He died on July 18th, 1990 in Noepeming Nursing Home near Duluth at the age of 99 years old. He was survived by two sisters, Mathilda Berget (of Thief River Falls, MN) and Emma Mickelson (of Barron, Wisconsin), and his daughter Marion when he finally passed away. (His son Lloyd and daughter Bernice had passed away earlier.)

Both Ben and Wilma are buried at Duluth's Sunrise Cemetary.

"Uncle Benny" as he was known, lived in Oklee for thirty years before moving to Duluth. He had worked at the Missabe Ore Docks until his retirement. He was a member of Zion Lutheran Church, Oklee, MN and Bethany Lutheran Church in Duluth.

Esther Johnson's children were Arlene, Betty, Dorothy, Warren, Lloyd and Laverne. Only Lloyd and Betty remain alive of Esther's children.

Lloyd is living in Iowa and is in a nursing home there after having three strokes and two caratoid (neck) surgeries. (This is as of August, 2000.)

Louise's brother, Alex Bourman had several children, Alvin, Marvin, Mavis, Marie and Ethel. Marvin eventually moved to Minneapolis and lived only about a mile south of the HHH Metrodome. Mavis married Arlie Brekee of Oklee. And Ethel married Otto Johnson.

When Roger Fossum was attending North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, on one occasion, Marv Bourman took a look at his car to try and see if it was working okay.

This next letter comes from "The Provincial Archives" of something- some place in Sweden more than likely. My grandmother, Louise Fossum, was attempting to trace her family lineage and came up with quite a nice letter from some genealogist in Scandinavia.

Along the edge of the letter, Louise Bourman Fossum has the following note along the edge of the letter that reads as follows:

"Carl was my father. Dad was married to someone else that died. I'm not sure but I think her name was Fredericka. They had five children- one died very young. The other four were Louis, Hulda, John, and Frank. They all came to America."

On the second page of the letter, Louise had written the following comments on the edge of the letter:

"Maria was my mother. She had a brother named Per and a sister Eva."

The text of the letter is as follows...

Return address: Postfack 161
Telefon 0611/11776
Date: 6.10.1971

Mrs. Alf Fossum
1524 East 3rd St., Apt. C
Duluth, MN 55812
USA

Dear Madam,

In answer to your letter of August 11th, 1971, the Provincial Archives can give you this information.

On December 12th, 1844, Carl Oscar (ed. note- Louise's father) was born as the son of the rifle man (sw. faltjagare) Johan Hagg and his wife Greta (Greta is a shortening for Margareta) Cajsa Nilsdotter in the village of Degerbyn in the parish of Skelleftea countryside.

Carl Oscar's father Johannes (Jehan is a shortening for Johannes) was born on June 2nd, 1819 as the son of Per Danielson and his wife Anna Nilsdotter in the village of Burea (Skellefted countryside).

Carl Oscar's mother Margaretha Catharina (Cajsa is a shortening for Catharina) was born on January 27th, 1822, as the daughter of the soldier Nils Ahl and his wife Christina Elisabeth Olofsdotter in the village of Ostvik (Skellefted countryside). According to the household examination roll of Skellefted countryside (1843-1852, vol. AI:9f) Johan Perssen Hagg and Greta Cajsa Ahl got married on June 6th, 1841. They have been found in the marriage register of Skellefted countryside too, but as that book is fire-damaged, it is not possible to verify the date. In the Provincial Archives the last kept household examination roll of Skellefted countryside covers the years 1853-1862. According to that one Johan Persson Hagg and Greta Cajsa Ahl were still alive in 1862 living in the village of Hjaggbole. (Household examination rolls after 1862 are still kept in Skellefted, address: Pastorsambetet i Skelleftea landsforsamling, 931 03 Skelleftea 3).

The name Hagg is here struck out and replaced with Burman.

Pehr Danielsson was born on August 26th, 1774 as the son of Daniel Olofsson and his wife Stina Olofsdotter in the village of Falnmark (Skelleftea countryside). Per Danielsson died on May 14th, 1849.

Anna Nilsdotter was born on August 6th, 1781 as the daughter of Nils Israelsson and his wife Greta Cajsa Carlsson (it is not possible to read the name of the village because of the fire damage of that book, too) in the parish of Skelleftea countryside. Anna Nilsdotter died on June 12th, 1858.

Pehr Danielson and Anna Nilsdotter got married on February 13th, 1803.

According to the birth register of Skelleftea countryside 1858 Maria Lovisa was born on June 23 (not 22) as the daughter of the farmer Per Ol Lufbom and his wife, Eva Mariana Olsdotter in the village of Haggnaa.

Further research on your ancestry will be accompanied by a charge. The Provincial Archives recommend you to settle an amount of money which must be exceeded.